In situ laser-imprinted surface realignment of a nematic liquid crystal

Soft Matter
Giorgio MirriI Muševič

Abstract

We present a new method for the in-plane realignment of nematic liquid crystals in already fully assembled cells with uni-directionally rubbed polyimide as an aligning layer. We use nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) with a relatively high nematic-isotropic transition temperature and we focus the IR laser beam of the laser tweezers selectively onto one or the other of the inner interfaces. The heat generated by the IR absorption locally melts the liquid crystal and creates an isotropic island with well-defined molecular anchoring at the nematic-isotropic interface. By scanning the laser beam along a pre-defined line, the moving isotropic-nematic interface leaves behind a well oriented LC domain, with LC molecules aligned at 45° to the rubbing direction. If we in addition move the sample with respect to this scanning line, we would be able to selectively realign micro-domains of the liquid crystal with respect to the original alignment induced by the PI rubbing. The realignment can be performed independently on each LC-glass interface, thereby producing predefined domains with customized and controllable alignment within an otherwise uniformly aligned cell.

References

May 18, 1992·Physical Review Letters·Y OuchiY R Shen
Feb 25, 2005·The European Physical Journal. E, Soft Matter·I I SmalyukhO D Lavrentovich
May 16, 2007·Physical Review Letters·Jun-Ichi FukudaHiroshi Yokoyama
Mar 21, 2008·Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics·Jun-ichi FukudaHiroshi Yokoyama
Jul 2, 2011·Science·Uroš TkalecIgor Muševič
Dec 14, 2011·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Angel MartinezIvan I Smalyukh
Feb 14, 2013·Nature Communications·A NychI Muševič
Jul 16, 2013·Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics·M ŠkarabotI Muševič

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Citations

Sep 29, 2015·Soft Matter·Miha Ravnik, Jun-Ichi Fukuda
Jul 3, 2017·The Journal of Chemical Physics·I ŚliwaA V Zakharov
Jul 14, 2017·Journal of Materials Chemistry. B, Materials for Biology and Medicine·Piotr PopovAntal Jákli
Mar 7, 2020·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Yoshiko TakenakaIgor Musevic

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